A/N: Alright. Another Tuesday, another update. =3 Just one more week of school left before Thanksgiving Break, you guys. 8D So I don't have an excuse if I don't update on time next week. XD But anyways, for those of you who have waiting oh so patiently, here be Chapter 26 of ZADR Orange, one of my absolute favorites. =3 So we hope you all enjoy. 8D And remember, feedback be much appreciated, as are all the people who have faved or added this story to their story alert lists! 8D

Warnings: Extreme OOCness

Rating: M for later chapters

Disclaimer: We do not own Invader Zim, nor any of the characters from it. We do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Zim: Notgonnadie

Dib: Me

Gaz: Both of us

Beta: Notgonnadie

Hardly responding to Zim's words, Dib was in too deep of a sleep to know anything other than he wanted Zim to remain still as some kind of pillow for him.

Letting Dib cuddle up to him, Zim sighed out quietly. "Please be okay, Dib..." he just wanted his human hybrid to recover quickly.

Returning to the base about 45 minutes later, Gaz entered Zim's bedroom without even knocking this time, a small bag of various items in hand. "How is he?" she asked, placing the bag on the bed and looking up at Zim.

Looking up from Dib, Zim could only shake his head slowly. "I'm not sure...He's still asleep." he responded, petting back a bit of Dib's hair.

"Well, I bought a few items for when he wakes up that our mom used to give us whenever we were sick. They should help lower his fever." Gaz said, pulling out a few of the things to place near the edge of the bed.

"Okay...You think he'll be okay, right?" Zim asked, just needing that little bit of reassurance.

Gaz merely nodded her head. "So long as you don't pull any more organs out of him or play around with his DNA, he should be fine in a day or two." she said, pulling something that looked like an ice-pack out of the grocery bag. "I'll be right back. I'm going to throw this in the freezer upstairs for a bit. Keep an eye on him until I get back." she instructed the Irken before leaving.

Nodding his head silently, Zim could only hold tighter to Dib.

Yawning tiredly in his sleep, Dib slowly started to come to again, bringing a hand up to rub under one of his eyes before blinking them open enough to have a look around. "Hmmm..." he sounded out disorientated.

Freezing in his spot, Zim brought his gaze down to look at Dib with wide eyes. "A-Are you okay?" he asked, having been wanting to ask the other how he was feeling all morning.

Bringing his tired gaze up to look at Zim, Dib responded back in a fairly worn out voice. "My body is hurting again..." was all he could manage to say.

"Gaz said she'd be right back, Dib...Just hold on." Zim told the other, hugging him lightly in an attempt to make him feel better.

But Dib could only let out a light sob at that as he felt anything but better in that moment. If possible, he actually felt worse. "I want my mom..." he whimpered out somewhat delusional, something he only did when he was in severe pain.

Flinching back at Dib's words, Zim nuzzled him back gently, just wanting to calm him down now. "I-I don't know where she is..." he stuttered out, unsure what to do now that Dib had started crying.

Arms crossed, Gaz stood back in the doorway to the room. "That's because she's dead." she said before making her way back into the room.

Looking up from Dib as she walked in, Zim couldn't help but send her a slightly confused look now. "What happened? How did she die?" he asked, not having wanted to ask Dib for fear of opening old wounds.

Approaching the bed, Gaz glanced down at Dib. "I don't think that's the best topic to be discussing right now." she said before gesturing to Dib, who was whimpering in Zim's arms at the moment. "She was still alive the last time he got this sick." she informed him, cutting off the subject there.

Looking back down at Dib and sighing, Zim could only shake his head and hold him close. "I keep forgetting...You're no more than a smeet, Dib..." his voice came out soft as he often forgot how young Dib still was.

Merely watching them for a few moments, Gaz then turned back to look through the stuff she had bought for him. "Well, I got him a few fever reducers from the store, but I'm not quite so sure he should be taking them yet. If any of those painkillers you gave him are still coursing through his body, it might be better to start him off with a cold bath." she said, looking back up at Zim. "You did leave him with the ability to tolerate water, right?" she asked, though she wouldn't be surprised if he hadn't.

"Of course I did! Do you think I'm stupid?" Zim snapped back at her moodily.

"Trust me. You don't want me to answer that truthfully...Now, can I trust you to give him a cold bath without doing anything overly perverted to him? I'd do it myself, but I'd really rather not have to see what his new bits and pieces look like after what you did to his DNA." Gaz said, making a slightly disgusted face at the thought.

Antennae falling back to press against the back of his head, Zim glared hatefully at Gaz. "I'm not THAT bad! I'm not doing anything until HE'S ready anyways! But as it looks now, he'll never want to, so you can just quit harassing me about it already!" he barked back at her, pulling away from Dib to get up out of the bed before picking the boy up carefully to carry him to the bathroom.

Rolling her eyes, her arms crossed, Gaz could tell he was just overreacting about the issue now.

Meanwhile, in Zim's arms, Dib had shrunk down a bit, his new antennae falling back almost submissively as he stared back up at Zim a little frightened by all the yelling. "Are you mad at me?" he asked in a quiet voice, thinking the other had only gotten so upset because he had refused to have sex with him.

Looking down at Dib shocked at that question, Zim quickly shook his head. "Wh-Why would I be mad at you?" he exclaimed, holding him close and nuzzling him. "I love you...None of this is your fault, Dib...It's mine..." his voice then fell down to a whisper so as not the scare him anymore than he already had.

"But you sounded upset that I didn't want to have sex with you yet..." Dib responded back, shrinking down just a bit more in Zim's arms.

Shaking his head violently, Zim didn't want Dib thinking any of this was his fault. "NO! I was mad because your sister wouldn't stop harassing me! It had nothing to do with you. You're still just a smeet...At least at heart..." his voice became soft again as he didn't want Dib feeling burdened about the subject.

Calming just a bit at those words, Dib sniffled wetly in Zim's arms. "S-So, you're not mad at me about it then?" he asked, still feeling a little bit guilty about refusing to sleep with Zim.

Nuzzling him gently, Zim carefully set Dib down to start the bathwater for him, the water coming out a light pink color. "Of course not. I've told you this before, Dib. It was my fault." he reassured the other one last time.

Bringing one hand up to rub at one of his eyes and then his other hand up to rub at his other eye, Dib wiped the tears away the best he could at that answer as he waited for Zim to fill the tub for him.

Still facing away from Dib as he prepared the bathwater, Zim didn't notice this until he had turned back around. "This bath is half water, half cleansing goo. It should be enough to feel nice to you and not burn me." he said before turning back to Dib. "Are you ready to get i- Hey. What's wrong?" he asked as he reached forward a hand to wipe at a few of Dib's tears.

The tears still coming, Dib just continued to wipe at his eyes with his hands. "My head hurts...a lot." he said before shivering slightly where he sat, just wishing above all else that everything would stop hurting so much.

"Oh, Dib..." Zim reached his hand up to pet his head softly, stroking back his antennas gently. "Here. You'll feel better if you get in, okay?" he offered to help the other into the tub.

Antennae shuddering at the gentle stroking, Dib nodded his head slowly before allowing Zim to help him get undressed so he could get in the tub.

Pulling up a washcloth once Dib was settled into the soothing liquid, Zim then reached over to retrieve a small bar of soap. "Here. You just relax. Zim will clean you up." he instructed the other before kissing him and starting to clean him off.

Trying to relax as Zim began to carefully wash him, taking special care when cleaning around the stitched up area on his chest, Dib merely reclined in the tub a bit, blushing as he squeezed his legs together somewhat subconsciously, Zim being the only other person besides his mother who had ever been in the same room with him while he was completely naked.

Careful in his cleaning of Dib, Zim, however, never blushed or looked away as to him, this was a mission. Making sure he cleaned Dib thoroughly, he worked to finish his job up quickly so Dib would start to feel better soon.

Noticing how concentrated Zim seemed to be on the task at hand, Dib turned his gaze to watch Zim for a bit.

Zim merely continued working, finishing his job washing Dib's body quickly enough before turning to his hair. "Can you dunk down a little?" he asked, wanting Dib to be comfortable while he did this.

Blushing even more, Dib nodded his head before bowing it down a bit and bringing his knees up to hug to his chest so he could rest his head there comfortably as Zim began washing his hair.

Being delicate with Dib's thin antennae, Zim gently began rubbing in the soap carefully.

Entire body shuddering as the other ran his hands over his antennae softly, Dib soon let his eyes slip back closed as though to sleep as the sensation was surprisingly soothing.

Leaning down a bit when Dib seemed to relax, Zim whispered a question quietly into his antennae. "Do you feel better?" he asked, sensing Dib's comfort level now that he was in the tub.

Blinking his eyes slightly open at the question, Dib took in a more steady breath before exhaling slowly. "A little..." he admitted, the soft massaging around his antennae calming him considerably.

Smiling down at him, Zim returned his attention back to the task at hand. "I'm glad..." he said, working his fingers around each strand of hair gently.

Tiredly letting his eyes slip closed a second time, Dib then leaned up against Zim a bit and sighed in some comfort.

Smiling sadly at the small gesture, Zim leaned down to press a kiss to Dib's forehead. "You'll get better soon, Dib. I know it." he told the other in a reassuring manner, relieved now that things were calming back down.

"I hope so...The room is spinning..." Dib said, his head lolling a bit when he opened his eyes again to have a look around.

A/N: And there you have it. Your weekly update of ZADR Orange. =3 Poor Dibbles. He be in so much pain his head is spinning. I think all that antennae touchy in the last chapter was bad for him. XD Anyways, next chapter will be up sometime next week. 8D So let me take this time to respond to those of you who reviewed. =3

To Cat Human: Lol. XD Thanks. X3 I'm sorry to say Dibbles be in quite a lot of pain for a while still though. D8 That's why he needs Zimmeh there to make him feel all better again. Though honestly, a lot of his pain in this story IS a result of things Zim does to him unintentionally. XD But you'll see what I mean by that later in the story. =3

To Casykirby: Lol. XD Well, Chapter 34 won't be here for a while still, though we are drawing ever closer to it. =3 Just remember that it won't be posted here on Fanfiction. I'll have a link to it in my profile when we reach that chapter. I don't want to take any chances with FF removing the story. But as for your question, yes, we do have the chapters planned out ahead of time for the most part. =3 It's not that we work on them during the week, though we do work on the overall story during that time. Basically, this story started out as a random script RP. When we decided to start posting the chapters, I took the time to retype this story in a narrative form. So the chapters are already typed out long before I post them here. If I had really wanted to, I could have posted around 77 chapters here already. But I prefer taking my time. Where NGD and I are in working on this story is FAR from where you people are in reading it. But it's better that way. Posting so many chapters all at once would probably cause people's heads to explode from an information overload. So we're taking it slowly for now. As for the people on facebook, I assume you mean the ZADR fanz people. We're aware they made our story their official story for their page. And that somebody actually made a facebook page entitle ZADR Orange. But that's all I've heard of our story on facebook. It's quite flattering, though nobody really bothers to ever tell us these things. I had to google it just to find those two pages. It would have been nice to know ahead of time. But oh well. I think some people are afraid to talk to us or something. Either that or they think we're like every other fiction writer out there who DOESN'T respond to their fans. But really, we're just two normal people who enjoy getting to know the people who like our writing. =3 Anyways. Glad to hear you're enjoying the story so much, as always. Chapter 34 be only 8 chapters away, so hang in there. And we hope to hear from you again soon. =3 Also, thank you for the encouraging words. ^^ It's always nice to hear when we've accomplished such a feat as actually making our readers feel as though they were there, in the story. =3 So until next time~

To Vithian: Lol. I don't doubt it. =3 You're always here to review. So if you left for any reason, I assume you'd come back eventually. =3 But anyways. Yes. I think that is the challenge for most fiction writers. Taking a situation that's already been played upon and adding an unexpected twist. NGD and I certainly hope that's what we're managing to do with this story. =3 Personally, I love the way her mind works. Makes her a real pleasure to work with. =3 And I love making the unexpected happen in my stories. XD That's why I can't wait until NGD and I have the chance to sit down and work on that upcoming scene with Membrane in it. X3 But I should probably stop giving away such scenes in my responses back to you guys. Don't want to totally ruin the surprise for you. XD As for your thoughts about common and uncommon pairings, I would have to agree with you on all points but one. I wouldn't put DADR down as an uncommon pairing in the IZ universe. I find it's actually a quite popular pairing. I can't say for sure how many stories there are out there with DADR in them, but there are plenty enough good ones to make it a fairly regularly recognized pairing. As for the others, I'm just waiting for the next uncommon pairing to make it's entrance as a big time player. =3 I'm sure one will. In fact, a few others probably have by now. I've found DibXLard Nar to be becoming fairly popular. And even DwickyXSizzlhor seems fairly common to me today. =3 Just depends on who writes the story/draws the fanart that makes those pairings work. =3 I doubt any pairing will ever top ZADR though. Too many fan girls/boys. Also, they're practically the main characters of the show overall. Of course they'd have to be paired together by virtually every IZ fan out there, even if they don't like ZADR. To make an OCXZim/Dib pairing work though, first the OC would have to be made equally as popular as both of them. Otherwise, it's just a waste of time pairing them together. I've maybe read one OC story/comic that managed to pull this off, but only because the creator promotes her character so well and has an original storyline to go along with it. I'll admit there are some aspects of the storyline I don't like, but it's definitely more original than most other people have made their OC stories. What you've pointed out about OC stories is exactly what I try to avoid in reading. If somebody can pull off an OC story without all those elements in it, then great for them. They probably deserve any praise they get for it. Otherwise, I wouldn't put too much money on them receiving many reviews for it. For ZADR Orange, I'll admit we've got a few OCs later in the story. But they're there as necessary characters meant to develop the plot. They're either single or paired with another OC. They don't intrude on any of the other relationships already established in this story. So hopefully you guys will like them when they enter the story later on. And indeed. Making uncommon pairings work can be quite fun when it comes to writing. So I hope you have fun writing your DASR story. XD And as always, we can't wait to hear back from you again. =3 So thanks for reading and reviewing. 8D

To Lovingly Insane: Well, hello there, new reader. 8D So nice of you to join us. =3 For the record, updates are available once a week, usually on Tuesdays. So feel free to check back with us each and every week. 8D I don't recall you commenting on this either, but it's so nice to hear from you that you're enjoying our story so much. 8D We're quite flattered you would consider our story to be the best IZ fic you've ever read. =3 It certainly will be the longest, I can assure you of that. That is, if you continue reading of course. ^^ We're glad you don't find them to be too OOC, though really, they become more OOC as the story progresses. XD You'll see what I mean by that later in the story though, once again, given you continue reading. XD Anyways, here be our regular weekly update for you. Hope you enjoy. =3

To lillybean queen of the i ocean: Yayz! 8D We're glad to hear it! Here's the next chapter for you. ^_^

To Illisandria Carthain: HI! 8D (Waves back) Lol. XD We're so happy to hear you enjoy our flawed Zim in this story. 8D Well, actually, it's NGD's flawed Zim. XD I only do Dib's parts in this story. She does Zim's flawed parts oh so well. XD But it makes for a really cute interaction between the two of them. =3 That's why I love working with her on this story. As for your weekly question, seeing as how you've been reading the conversation between Vithian and I, like I said in my response this week, whether I read an OC story or not is dependent on what the OC is there to do in the story. If the character is there to progress the plot of an IZ story then perhaps. If the universe doesn't correspond with the original plot line of the show though, then probably not. Lots of variables play into the success or failure of OC stories. I don't mind the propaganda, but an actual summery of what the stories are about would be nice before diving into them. So here be your update for this week. =3 And we certainly do love you too. (Huggles) Until next time~ =3

To heartofstone15: Lol. XD We're glad you think so. Hopefully you'll find this next chapter just as cute. =3 And, yes. Who wouldn't care for poor, hurt Dibbles? (Huggles him) X3

To snickers-03: Ah well, hello there. Welcome back. It's been a while since we've heard from you. =3 We're so glad to hear you're still enjoying our story so much. 8D It really nice to receive reviews from people we haven't heard from in a long while. ^^ Anyways, thank you so much for your kind review. 8D We certainly shall do our best to keep this fic to your people's liking. 8D

To lostsun: Well, hello there and welcome! 8D We always love seeing new faces here. =3 Though, honestly, I don't know where you are in the story yet. ^^; I figure since you sent us a review for chapter 9, I might as well respond back to you in this chapter. =3 So, hopefully you'll see this when you read Chapter 26. =3 We're glad to hear you're enjoying the story so much. And indeed, a ZimXPurple fic would be absolutely awesome. XD If you'd like, you could consider this to be a one-sided ZAPR fic. XD But the main pairing in this is ZADR. So we hope you'll continue to enjoy that pairing as well throughout. ^^ Anyways, when you catch up with the story, we hope to hear from you again. Much thanks to you for commenting. 8D